The Do It Yourself Pad Thread

[Discoman]

As I said I would in the Reorganization Thread, here is the Do It Yourself Pad Review Thread.

I encourage you to post pictures, fun things, and etc about your pads that you've made. I also encourage you to post questions about specific pad-crafting-related issues.

I eventually hope to have some sort of comprehensive information on pad creation, and this thread should help quite a bit.

More to come in this first post when I have a bit more time.

Go.

Devout's Guide to Non-Pad Slippage (Posted directly from devout's thread. Use at your own risk.

hey all, due to popular demand I finally got around to looking for some good anti-slip devices. I give you, the mending plate: *fanfare*



I think it's pretty obvious how this works... but you screw a few of these bad boys on the bottom of your pad and it does the rest. I just installed some on my stealth pad (one of these cut in half in each corner) and I tried pushing it across my floor and couldnt get it to budge at all. (Though I actually haven't tried playing on it yet )

obvious caveats:
1) this is for hard pads or soft pads mounted on wood only
2) the carpet+padding needs to be at least as thick as the spikes are long, which is probably true for most houses
3) if you ever mistakenly take your pad onto a hardwood floor you are so so screwed
4) could possibly tear carpet... i'll let you know if i have any problems over the next few weeks, but I dont anticipate this will actually be a problem
5) if you store your pad by leaning it against a wall... that might also get you in trouble.
6) the spikes are very sharp, keep away from kids and make sure you never drop the pad on your foot

If you pad isnt wood maybe you could epoxy these on instead of using screws. (though then they wouldnt be removable) Or you might try velcro if you want them easily removable... experiment and tell us what works.

I spent $1.50 for two of these that I cut in half, or you could buy 4 smaller ones for about $2 (or buy more if it still slips). It took about 5 minutes to install on my pad. You can find them in the building supplies section of home depot. The part name is "simpson strong-tie MP36"

[Ghettobarney]

Yay first post! I have pictures of my pad in"my pad in progress" I'd put em here but I'm posting from my Wii(Ftw)
_________________

OMG I BEETS MACKS 300!

[wrecktified]

Greetings ddrfreak forum people. I'm a longtime lurker in the homebuilt dance pad thread and since I built my own pad I decided I should give something back to the community. My pad is sort of a hybrid of Riptide, Stoli and Matrlx. I wanted a thin, semi-portable pad and I wasn't concerned with lighting so I used Stoli's base design. I also wanted arcade look and feel so I used Riptide's design for the corner braces and metal panels as well as his excellent videos for general guidance. Most of all though I wanted the pad to score as accurately as possible so I chose what I felt was the best sensor design, Matrlx's. After using my pad for a while I decided to make a bar for it so I used a design I found on the cobalt flux forums by DirtyNeedles. The bar uses pvc pipe to cut down on costs. Anyway, without further ado here are some pics:

Full view of pad with pvc bar: http://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u248/wrecktified/pad-full.jpg
Borders are 3/4" sanded plywood spray painted with satin finish black krylon.

Top view (bar detached): http://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u248/wrecktified/pad-top.jpg
Please excuse the dirtiness of my pad. It has seen about 8 months of heavy use.

Side view so you can see the thin-ness: http://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u248/wrecktified/pad-side.jpg
Pad ended up weighing about 50 lbs. so it isn't too bad to move it vertically against my wall when I want to reclaim some floor space.

View from back corner so you can see the flatness and recess of the arrows: http://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u248/wrecktified/pad-flat.jpg

Pad control box: http://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u248/wrecktified/pad-cbox.jpg
I don't own a PS2 so my control box is for xbox, which has the benifit of also being a trivial conversion to usb for stepmania (note the xbox and usb connections on the end of the cord). The cbox is made from an old ignition knock off I got from ebay that died in a week. The actual circuit board for the dead pad works perfectly so at least I didn't get completely ripped off. The four buttons are from radioshack, they are the same as Riptide uses in his videos.

Arrow panel removed: http://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u248/wrecktified/pad-arrow.jpg
The blue tape is just masking tape. The wiring is all Cat-5 network cable. The arrow panel itself is made up of a piece of 1/4" hardboard with graphics glued on to it and a 1/4" piece of acryllic on top.

Close-up of sensor: http://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u248/wrecktified/pad-sensor.jpg

Opened sensor: http://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u248/wrecktified/pad-opens.jpg
The wires are held in place with aluminum foil tape, though in retrospect, I think electrical or duct tape would work better. The black pieces are small bits of mouse pad fastened to the bottom mending bracket by clear duct tape. The two parts of the sensor are held together with blue masking tape. Again, duct tape probably works just as well if not better. The screws are #10 pan head phillips 1/2" length. These sensors don't require much movement to complete the circuit (about 1/16"), which I am happy with.

Here are some videos of my pad in action. The game is ITGPC on a tv-out from my computer. Dancer is my brother. He is younger and better than me. He does 11s and some 12s, I can only do like 4 of the easier 11s. Shoddy camera work and assinine commentary by me.

Good shots of the pad in these, bad scores though for my bro (better than I could do)...
Delerium expert: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mAev1K9Hdo
Charlene expert: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zqlj1oLfkAc
Hardcore Symphony expert: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_JMYH6jUwE
Determinator expert attempt (and fail...): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUTgc4CQC_g

Not much of the pad in these videos, more focused on the screen, better scores...
Flying High expert: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PEbSg1epLY
Xuxa hard: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNNvIxK0d4M
Fleadh Uncut expert: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMUTQlS21OM
Utopia expert: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bh8dL9ynYSk
Robotix expert: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jI368_V_vfs

Overall I am happy with my pad, it has held up well so far. I definitely think home built is the way to go. My pad is more arcade like than any other pad I have used (haven't tried a blueshark yet but I have tried an arcade mod cobalt flux). As far as durability, I think I have had to rebuild 2 sensors in 8 months, so it's fairly low maintenance. I don't want to make it sound all rosey though as there are a few things I don't like about it. The pad doesn't score perfectly as I still get the occasional pad wayoff and it seems hard to score 98% and above (I don't score that high normally but my brother can and he seems to score slightly worse on my pad than on his cobalt flux, could just be that he's used to his pad though) . The pad also makes a little more squeaking and creaking noise than I would like.

Some things I learned building this pad are: You can do all the cutting with just a circular saw, although a jigsaw would have been nice for some parts. Measure twice cut once. Measure twice cut once. (I already knew this but it seems like I have to relearn it every time.) Corded drills are nice to have when your crappy cordless runs out of juice every 4 screws. Little costs add up. (I spent about $200 altogether including the bar.)

I found that building a pad is kind of addictive and I'm constantly thinking of ways to build the next pad better, cheaper, stronger, and more accurate to the arcade. I think if I had it to do all over again I would have used all particle board instead of plywood. IMO particle board is easier to work with and it's easier to find a flat piece of particle board than it is a flat piece of ply. I also think I could have cut down on my pads squeaking noises if I used particle board. I would have probably gone with a deeper arrow well as I prefer a more hollow sound to my pad. Making the wells deeper would also allow for thicker arrow panels which would minimize arrow flex (my arrows flex a little bit but not very much).

Anyway, that about does it for my diy pad. I'd like to thank Riptide, Stoli, and Matrlx for their contributions to the homebuilt dance pad thread which gave me the inspiration to take on this project. Also thanks to DirtyNeedles at the CF forums for the basic bar design. Hope this post helps some people in the design of their pad or motivates someone to build their own pad. If you are thinking of building your own pad I highly recommend Riptide's videos. Reading about designs for a pad helps, but seeing someone actually do the work involved and explaining it every step of the way helps a lot more.

[Katalyst]

To the poster above me, what kind of mousepad did you use between the brackets? As of right now, I've got a 1/8" thick mousepad but it's not very spongy and really doesn't compress at all. And I've got a 1/4" one that's pretty spongy and compresses a good bit. Would either of these be suitable using a sensor setup like yours or should I look around for another mousepad?

EDIT: Nevermind. Went ahead and tested the 1/8" and of course I remembered the screws holding the bottom bracket down don't sit flush with the bracket so that decreases the space required to make contact even more. Although the 1/8" doesn't compress as much, since the space that it needs to compress is so small, a simple footstep gets it there. Ah yeah, and I like the idea of having the hardboard as the "panel" before the plexiglass. This actually works better for me because now my plexiglass has less of chance of bending/cracking since it now has full support under it.

[The Wise Fool]

wrecktified, what kind of screws did you use in your sensors?

[wrecktified]

[Katalyst]

Alright, using the sensor style shown in wrecktified's pad I've gotten my current one to respond pretty well, almost perfect in my terms. It's not quite there yet because I didn't have many brackets to begin with so for testing purposes I was able to do 2 sensors (4 brackets) per arrow on the sides. Since it looks like it's going well, I'm gonna go ahead and do 2 more for the other sides of each arrow. I'm using the 3" Stanley brackets right now. To wrecktified (or anyone really for that matter), do you know where I could order more of these online for a decent price?

[wrecktified]

[ChilliumBromide]

[slvrshdw]

[Katalyst]

[SilasX]

Based on Discoman's recommendation, I'm posting my solution to keeping "semi-hard" foam pads together on doubles mode. I did this on a Red Octane Ignition 3.0, but it works for basically any of that type, as long at it has a hem you can punch a pin through. (This post is slightly more detailed.)

Before I go further though, I have a suggestion on the title for this thread. It was kind of misleading at first to me, because it looks like this is a thread for reviewing others' submitted DIY pads. I suggest that this thread be renamed "The Do It Yourself Pad Summary Thread".

So, on to my solution for how to keep the pads from separating on doubles with the Red Octane Ignition. I've been using it for the last two or so months. Basically, all you have to do clip the bottom hems (where they touch) together, using four blanket pins (basically, heavy-duty safety pins you can find in hobby shops). I took some pictures too:

Bottom view

Side view

The pins are circled in red.

I don't have a detailed diagram (though I'll make one if necessary), and it's hard to see even in a high-res pic, but all you have to do to insert a pin is punch it in-and-out of pad #1, and then in and out of pad #2, and then close then pin. Try to leave at least a quarter-inch between where a pin goes in and where it comes out, so as to avoid a "tear-out" failure.

As for where to insert them, I put two on the ends and the other two each about one foot inboard, just outside the arrow button so as to minimize the risk you'll step on it. (You can put pins on the top too to keep it together even better; however, this poses a risk of stepping on one, and keeps you from folding it up regularly. See next paragraph.) Make sure to alternate which pad you start from.

What's great about this is, as you can see from the side view, since all the pins are along one line, you can just fold it back up when you want to put it away compactly. Plus, you can indefinitely swap out new pads without having to get new pins.

As for how well it holds together, here's a video of me doing Paranoia Evolution on Heavy. Yeah, sound is out of sync. Don't know why it does that when I upload. And for one that really puts stress on the connection, here's a video of me doing Candy on Heavy (DDRMAX version), though the sound quality is lower.

Thanks to my parents who figured this out (no, I don't live with them). Hope I didn't re-invent the wheel...
_________________

YouTube page with my vids, now in sync!

[dj_sammylvr03]

I used Stoli's design. It turned out beautiful. The responses are great! I ended up saving a little money and getting lower grade sheet metal to wrap the wood in. The only problem I have is slight movement. It still slides on the carpet, considering it weighs 52 pounds. I need to get a thick foam or something to go underneath it.

Pic 1
Pic 2
Pic 3

Stoli said if I wanted to shine up the galvy a little, to just steel wool it a little and get some silver/chrome polish. I haven't done that yet, but I will.
_________________

DD:Recall
You want soundtracks? You got soundtracks!

[devout]

[Weston]

I suppose I should link to the pad guide here too:
http://members.aol.com/tenk/ddr/intro.htm

[jimmit]

Hey,

I'm new to the forum, and I found it because I was looking for ideas on building my own pad. I've actually decided to build a completely wooden pad (no sheet metal or acrylic glass) and use a combination of light stains and dark stains for the arrow graphics.

I'm somewhat new to DDR (only been playing a few months), but I realize that although Stepmania is nice, I still like the console games. Unfortunately, I do not own a playstation - only an xbox. The pads I'm using are kindof on loan from a summer camp that my fiance works for. It's for high schoolers for a week during the summer, so they only use them during that time, so I can't modify or tear apart these pads (they're just softpads). I need a way to make a homepad with an xbox (and therefore USB) controller. I have not seen much information specifically talking about modding an xbox controller, much less any tutorials or descriptions. I tried searching the forums, but could also not find anything useful. I'm thinking that getting a couple of really cheap softpads just for the controller is the key, but I don't know where to find the cheapest ones. eBay seems to bottom out around $25-$30 for two (I'm doing two at a time).

So this boils down really to two main questions:

1.) Any hints specifically for building a wooden pad?
2.) Any information on modding xbox controllers or finding controllers/pads really cheap somewhere?

Thank you in advance for your help!

[ChilliumBromide]

If you can pick up something like this locally, than that's the way to go. That's probably the cheapest you'll find.

1) 1/2". FIR. PLYWOOD. BASE. nuff said.
_________________

I used to be active here lol

[jimmit]

Thanks, I'll head to Lowes and do some plywood analysis. Do you think a well-finished plywood would work well (hold stain and stay together) for the top too? I asked my father who is a retired cabinet maker and he suggested Baltic Birch, but from what I see it seems quite expensive. I was thinking more in the $20 range for a 4'x8'.

[slvrshdw]

definately use a softpad for the xbox/USB thing

thats what i did on my pad(s) ive done(doing)

the softpad's circuitry is by far the best option to use for the xbox

side note: all woodend pad is pretty much the same as everyone's pad except you just dont cover the panels with the sheet metal
_________________

[ChilliumBromide]